


Shine On

by Vagrant_Blvrd



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-06
Updated: 2021-02-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 20:34:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,583
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29249619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Vagrant_Blvrd/pseuds/Vagrant_Blvrd
Summary: Knowing Luke Skywalker, Din learns, is something of an experience.
Relationships: Din Djarin/Luke Skywalker
Comments: 10
Kudos: 274





	Shine On

“I need to tell you something about Luke,” Leia says, only a few days after their introduction.

There’s an expression in her face, note to her voice that speaks of urgency, importance.

They look to where Luke is teaching Grogu a game, a cleverly disguised lesson in control. Grogu laughs with delight once Luke explains it to him, and it’s not long before he manages to copy him. 

Small stones rise from the garden path in a wobbling orbit around a bemused Artoo, trailing after the ones moving along a surer path.

“Now?” Din asks, and Leia nods, gesturing for Din to follow her.

She leads him to a quiet corner of the garden, hanging vines offering them a semblance of privacy.

“Please, sit,” she says and he joins her on a bench.

Din watches her, curious and wary in equal measures. Luke speaks of her often, fond and affectionate always, but there’s also - 

“Din, there’s no easy way to tell you this,” Leia says, and reaches out to take his hands in hers, leans forward and like Luke, meets his eyes through the visor. The corner of her mouth twitches, faint smile as she pats his hand. Offers reassurance, comfort. “But I feel it’s something you need to know.”

Din frowns, seeds of unease taking root, tendrils of dread threading through.

Leia sighs, a weary thing, her shoulders bowed.

“My brother,” she says, hands squeezing Din’s with a strength to them most wouldn’t expect. A deep breath, slow exhale. “My brother is an idiot.”

Din blinks, thoughts hauled up short by the bluntness of Leia’s words. 

The sardonic tone. 

She’s watching him, eyebrows raised as though expecting a response.

There must be a proper one, the right one, and yet all he can think to say is “I did notice that, yes.” After a moment of further thought he also says “Very much so.”

It would be difficult not to, actually, with Luke being the way he is.

========

“Oh,” Luke says when he sees Din walk into the room, breaking off from a conversation he’s having with the Sullustan beside him. “Din. Hi.”

Din’s gaze slides to the Sullustan who mutters something under his breath and sidles away from Luke, turns his attention to the far wall as though trying to remove himself from the situation.

Smart.

More than Din can say for Luke who smiles at Din. Bright. Friendly. Din thinks it must also be painful, given the bruising that mars the side of Luke’s face, dark and angry looking. 

Luke’s smile falters as Din studies him silently. Glances at the Sullustan who pointedly ignores him. Clears his throat.

“So, ah,” he says, drumming his fingers on the bench he’s seated on. “Did Leia comm you?”

Din frowns at the slight hesitation, the way Luke’s lips thin as he mentions his sister. 

“No,” he says. “Your droid did.”

It had been unexpected, _unwelcome_ , but once he understood what the droid was telling him, Din realized he couldn’t ignore it.

Luke nods to himself, smiling ruefully as he looks back at Din. “Good,” he says, “that’s good.”

They stare at one another for a long moment, and then the clomping sound of footsteps approaching breaks the stalemate as a man in a rumpled uniform walks in behind Din.

“You here for him?”

Bored, indifferent, and a vague gesture at Luke.

Din tilts his head as he considers the question, amusement blooming as something like uncertainty flits across Luke’s face followed by something close to fond exasperation. 

“Looks like I am,” he answers, and steps aside to let the marshal unlock the detention cell Luke’s being held in.

Looks shoots him a look over the marshal's shoulder as the man goes over his paperwork before releasing Luke into Din’s keeping. Mild annoyance mixed with embarrassment, blush hitting his cheeks.

Din sees the moment when he chooses not to look away, stubborn defiance, and tells himself he’s not charmed by it.

========

“For the record,” Luke says, tugging the hood of his cloak over his head as they head to the impound to reclaim Luke’s X-wing, “ _I_ didn’t start that bar fight.”

Hm, no, he wouldn’t have, Din knows. Not without provocation. 

His traveling companions however - 

The sound of a long-suffering Wookiee’s voice raised in argument in the building ahead of them is unmistakable, and he and Luke share a look.

“Perhaps we should wait until Han and Chewie are done first,” Luke suggests, smile tugging at his mouth.

Din doesn’t sigh, but it’s so very close.

“Perhaps.”

========

“Look,” Solo tells him, a few short weeks later. Pauses. Frowns. “...what were we talking about?”

Din stares at him.

Solo stares back.

Din doesn’t drop his head onto the table between them because his weapons are there broken down for cleaning when Solo invited himself here.

“ _You_ were talking,” Din says, and moves the bottle of alcohol Solo brought with him to his side of the table, hoping it will prove to be deterrent enough to keep the man from refilling his glass. “And it was about Luke.”

The mention of Luke’s name garners Din a suspicious look as Solo leans forward in his seat. 

“Do _not_ hurt that kid,” he says, a fierceness in his eyes Din respects far more than the man’s bravado and brashness. “I mean it.”

Din inclines his head in acknowledgment, hands faltering briefly in long-familiar motions at the emotion in Solo’s voice as he delivers his warning.

Neither of them comment on it.

========

“He really is a little speed junkie, isn’t he?” Luke asks, grinning down at Grogu’s delighted face, little hands raised in joy from his spot in Luke’s lap as the rocky cliffs around them blurs past. 

Din bites back a sigh, ducking low when a blaster bolt pings off the side of their stolen speeder, more impacting the terrain around them to frustrated howls behind them, the growl of an angry engine bearing down on them.

“Skywalker,” he says, scowls as Luke blithely ignores him. “ _Luke_.”

A flicker of blue in his direction, Luke’s mouth curving into an all too familiar smirk.

“Hm?”

Din closes his eyes, rests his head against the internal framework of the speeder. _Breathes._

Luke laughs, chuckles, the speeder shoots forward and a moment later Din’s stomach swoops as the ground drops out from beneath it and Luke does something impossible as they leave their pursuers behind.

Grogu’s answering laughter joins with Luke’s, and the sound of it stays with Din long after they’ve left the planet behind.

========

Chewbacca stares at Din for a long moment. 

Just as Din’s beginning to become concerned at his prolonged silence, Chewbacca claps his hands on Din’s shoulder and holds his gaze.

Din’s Shyriiwook is far from fluent, but the long sigh Chewbacca lets out as he shakes his head needs no translation in relation to Skywalkers and Organas and Solos.

========

The heat of Yavin 4 has an entirely different quality than that of Tatooine or Nevarro, thick and cloying. 

If it bothers Luke or Grogu, they give no sign of it.

“Like this,” Luke says, guiding Grogu in another of his Jedi lessons, calm and even and infinitely patient.

His droid, Artoo, warbles in concern but remains with an air of bemused resignation about it as Luke uses the Force to raise him into the air.

Grogu makes a soft sound of wonder as Luke lowers the droid back to the ground. Lifts a hand towards the droid, frown slipping onto his face.

Luke laughs, quiet, reaching to take Grogu’s hand in his.

Din doesn’t know what words they exchange then, Jedi Master and student, but the frustrated expression on Grogu’s face eases, and the droid lets out a startled noise as gravity relinquishes its hold on it.

========

“Mando,” Cara greets with a nod of her head, about to say something else when movement from within his ship catches her eyes.

He watches with a rising sense of dread as a smile spreads over her face as recognition dawns.

“Cara, do _not_ ,” Din says, warns, but as always she ignores him. 

Her shoulder bumps his as she angles towards Luke and Grogu, dread raising its head at the sound of Luke’s name on her tongue, the sheer mischief of it.

========

“I like her,” Luke declares as he sits beside Din, light from the bonfire casting a golden glow on him. He sounds pleased. “Them.”

He hesitates, glancing at Din, something careful, deliberate, in his eyes. “I’m glad you brought me here.”

Din hums, looks to where Cara and Karga are introducing Grogu to a local delicacy, smiles easy, joyful.

Rare for them to be in one place without some worry or other concern taking precedence, for a moment of quiet like this.

Overhead the stars shine brightly, whatever conflicts taking place among them far away, unable to touch them here.

“You say that now,” Din says, tips his head towards the others. “That won’t last.”

Cara _alone_.

Luke grins, leans against Din as a cool night breeze winds its way through their small camp, exaggerates a shiver as Din glances at him.

“It’s cold,” Luke says, as though he didn’t grow up on Tatooine, isn’t used to the temperature shifts between night and day, season to season. 

As if Din’s armor will offer the warmth he’s seeking.

Din stares at him, Leia’s words playing in his head, a reminder and warning in one, and sighs as he puts his arm around Luke and pulls him closer.


End file.
